My application was refused over the minor issue. Can it be reopened?
If the refusal rested only on the old reading of the minor issue, the Interior Ministry circular prot. 65050 of 10 August 2026 directs the office that issued it to re-examine your original application rather than make you start again, and no new application fee is due. The request goes back to the same authority that refused you, whether that was a consulate or a comune.
The circular is narrow in a way that matters: it reopens the reading, not the file's other problems.
- Instructs consulates and comuni to apply the Joint Sections judgment 24045/2026 of 26 July 2026.
- Expressly supersedes the restrictive circular prot. 43347 of 3 October 2024, which is the instruction most of these refusals were written under.
- Covers the case of a parent naturalising between 1 July 1912 and 15 August 1992, the period in which Law 555/1912 governed loss.
- Allows those refused on that ground alone to ask for a re-examination of the original application, not a new application.
- Confirms no new application fee for the re-examination.
- Provides that where the original application was filed before 27 March 2025, the restrictions of Law 74/2025 do not apply during the re-examination.
Who this reaches, and who it does not
Reaches you if
The refusal letter's reasoning is that an ancestor lost Italian citizenship because a parent naturalised while they were a minor, and that ancestor was a citizen of their country of birth from the day of birth.
Does not reach you if
- The refusal cited other grounds as well, such as a missing document, a name discrepancy, or a different break in the chain. Those grounds still stand and still have to be answered.
- The ancestor was not a foreign citizen at birth and acquired the foreign citizenship through the parent. The companion judgments of 29 July 2026 leave that loss in place.
- You never applied. There is nothing to re-examine, and your entry question is article 3-bis.
What a request should contain
- Your original application's protocol or file number and its filing date.
- A copy of the refusal, with the passage relying on the minor issue marked.
- A short statement asking for re-examination of the original application under circular prot. 65050 of 10 August 2026, citing Joint Sections judgment 24045/2026.
- The birth record showing the ancestor held the foreign citizenship from birth, which is the fact the ruling turns on.
- If your original filing predates 27 March 2025, say so and give the date, because that is what keeps Law 74/2025 out of the re-examination.
Send it to the office that issued the refusal, and keep proof of sending. Ask that office for its own preferred form or channel before you send anything, because the circular sets the direction and each post handles its own correspondence.
What we could not verify
- Interior Ministry circular prot. no. 0065050 of 10 August 2026, superseding circular prot. no. 43347 of 3 October 2024.
- Court of Cassation, Joint Sections, judgment 24045/2026, deposited 26 July 2026; companion judgments 24184/2026 and 24185/2026, deposited 29 July 2026.
- Law 555 of 13 June 1912, articles 7 and 12; the loss regime ran until 15 August 1992, when Law 91/1992 took over.
- Article 3-bis of Law 91/1992 and its cutoff of 23:59 Rome time on 27 March 2025.
One next step
Take out the refusal letter and read its reasoning line by line. If the minor issue is the only ground, the next move is a letter that costs you nothing, and it should go out before you consider paying anyone for anything.
If the letter lists other grounds too, those are document problems, which is what our kit is for.
See what is in the kitThe free check remains the right start if you are not sure which rules governed your original file.